Cosplay!

I've found that Fire Mountain's Celestial Crystal (Chinese Swarovski knockoff) is pretty close to the print catalog color. If your monitor is calibrated you can see mostly true-color ranges.

Also, look at Preciosa, the precursor brand to Swarovski & much cheaper.

FM has a line of Czech fire polished crystal. Their Garnet Red is pretty dark, similar to Swarovski Siam. 6mm round is A47-6026GB, $4.63 for one 16" strand.

Orianna, look what I just found. https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32791...stal-Sewing-Accessories-Dresses-Costumes-Bags

Oh, dear god, my eyes! So much sparkle! The universe isn't ready for that, LOL!

I think she needs flatback rhinestones for the tiara, rather than the kind you string for jewelry. And they have to be fairly big. I found some 7mm round flatbacks in a dark red, but she said they were too small, except maybe as accent jewels. She knows I'd rather have dark red, so she'll do her best to find it. I'm sure it'll be gorgeous, no matter what.

She sent me a photo of the wig! It's curled and set, ready to ship. It looks a lot shorter than I was expecting, but she said her mannequin head has a very long neck, so it makes her wigs look shorter than they actually are. She's going to ship it tomorrow. I'm so excited!

Although, I'm a bit worried about the adhesive necessary to keep the wig on. It comes with tape, but I read something that said it's not a good idea if you have sensitive skin, and it also can get caught on your hairline, which is painful. Somewhere else recommended spirit gum, but when I looked at reviews on Amazon, a lot of people said it irritated their skin, or the removal liquid caused chemical burns. I have very thin, sensitive skin. I can't even let them use bandaids after they draw my blood, because it'll tear my skin and bleed when I remove it. So I'm concerned about how to keep the wig on my head. Any thoughts? It's lace-front, if that matters.

There is wig glue that is suggested for sensitive skin, but I don't know that it's much of an improvement. In my experience wig glue >>> spirit gum*, but reaction is always a possibility regardless of what you use. I've never used wig tape at all, so I can't say if that's any better. On a lace front, you can always cut off the lace front part and wear it as a non-lace front wig, but if you are looking at a big/heavy wig, that might make it very hard to keep in place.

Hmm. I've no idea how heavy the wig is. Dang, but that wig glue is expensive! $20 for a 1 oz bottle on Amazon! I'll have to check out the hair store to see if they have anything cheaper.

Anyone know a good (cheap) source for crystals in bulk? I need something like 1,900 round crystal beads, 8mm. I'd rather do 6mm, but then I'd need even more of them. I'm looking at Precosia, which is cheaper than Swarovski, but at Fire Mountain, it's going to be over $300 for what I need! I can't afford that. Plus, they're out of stock. Any other bulk sources?

I know zero about beads and crystals... maybe the jewelrymaking hands-on thread would be a good resource?

Thanks, I just posted there. We'll see what they have to say!

I know folks here are more into the historical side of things than I am....

Friends want to do a multi-day renn faire outing. (awesome) They also want to plan costumes in advance. I have worked at a faire but only behind the scenes/backstage before it opened. I have heard from others who have been involved in that life that it's not super cool when attendees dress like performers, but I've also heard plenty of "more the merrier"/"anything goes" responses.

Totally agree that I'm overthinking this, but in my friend group, I'm the one with costume experience/supplies. I've looked at what's available online, and the range is so wide... anyone has opinions on this?

Alessandra Kelley said:

I have literally never heard of a Renaissance fair that discourages patrons to dress up in costume.

Click to expand...

The fair didn't, as far as I know. It sounded a lot to me like how firefighters talk about volunteer firefighters, "they want to be part of the thing but they don't do it as well as we do" sort of gripe. As of now, the costumes my friends have started are mostly goodwill finds and that sort of fun/casual thing, but the conversation has turned to sewing costumes and heavier modding, and that means it'll land on my plate. I'm good with it, but my interest is in doing whatever makes it more fun, but if we get into accuracy, etc, I might not be so into it.

(my own 2+ costumes a year with months of prep is a different thing than costumes for four, all different body shapes and due in a month)

Alessandra, what time period was this person claiming pink didn't exist in?

I mean, even if they didn't actually have pink dye (which I honestly don't know, since that period is beyond my specialty), you could always use watered down red dye, I should think, and achieve the same effect, right?

No, it's definitely not nice to rag on someone who's obviously trying to have a good time. We were all beginners once, so even if the pink dye thing was legit, it wasn't fair. I might cringe when I see some newbie costuming errors, but I don't go up to the person and say, "You've got it all wrong, friend." (My coping strategy is to write an article explaining what the problem is and how to fix it. Educate, not humiliate.)

Turns out I can't get off work to go to the ren fair, so that answered that question...

Survived Con weekend! Two costumes were rewears, but the new one was surprisingly successful. There were a bunch of people doing the same character so spotting them for pictures was a lot of fun. I gave up on tailoring the shirt. I had the neckline right, and I used a binder clip to hide some of the extra fabric. The only last minute build was an oversized foam wrench out of insulation board. It was a little two hour project the night before the con so I had something to pose with for pictures.

Had the insulation board because I had a crazy work project last week. The campfire was a little bit of a speed build - I only had two afternoons to do all the purchasing and building. I wish I'd been able to order LEDs on the internet to get some that could flicker/multicolor change since once the set lights went down, most of the color variation (mostly different cellophanes, but also one really handy translucent orange shopping bag) was lost of just RED. The stones for the ring were insulation foam, and I did a dry brush on them which I thought was credible given my total lack of art skills. This is what the project looked like in regular lighting in my very messy apartment (with my very cute dog)

CoffeeBeans, that's really cool!

I just ordered an insane amount of beads/crystals and rhinestones. I'm almost ashamed at how much I spent on them. My justification is I'd already spent so much on this costume, I didn't want to quit now. But I've never spent so much money on a costume in my life.

No) You are not the last. There is also me. Really cool site, thanks for sharing!

After months of being unable to sew, I finally started a new cosplay project. With a deadline of three weeks. And what do you know? My iron no longer gets hot and needs to be replaced. And my sewing machine suddenly refuses to do an overlock stitch properly. It's skipping stitches, but only with the overlock stitch. Every other stitch is fine. But I use the overlock stitch for finishing all my raw edges and for sewing knit jersey. I can't sew without it.

The truly ironic thing is, I always keep $200 for emergency sewing machine maintenance/repair, but I had to spend that money in order to buy the tickets for the once-in-a-lifetime cosplay event I'm going to.

I'm nervously eyeing my machine. It has to get through a massive paying project this weekend, and it really needs maintenance I can't yet afford.

I have a new job with a living wage, but still a lot of bills to pay down.

Filigree, did your sewing machine last through your project?

So, my big cosplay project fell flat on its face. The only piece I finished in time was the cloak, which I made from a light gold brocade. And I somehow managed to get both blood and grease on the cream satin lining. As for the rest, I ran out of time and had to cobble together a dress from what I had on hand, so instead of a grand fantasy medieval-esque costume, I looked more like a sister-wife. (No offense to sister-wives. It's just not quite the look I was going for.) But the event was still awesome and I had a blast!

In other news, I came up with a new belt for my Jedi costume and I'm very pleased with it. The belt I used before was something I found on Etsy. It's made of heavy, very stiff leather, and it's pretty wide, so it doesn't do my figure any favors. Plus the orangey "saddle brown" color clashes with my teal and aqua fabrics. Shortly before May the 4th, I realized that my new purse came with a long crossbody strap that I didn't plan to use. I fished it out of the closet and found that it was exactly the right color and width! It ended up making a perfect belt to hold my lightsaber. You can see it here.

Current WIPs:

* I'm trying to update my Handmaid's Tale outfit in time for the premiere viewing party I'm throwing. Need a new cap and wings, and a new belt, minimum.

* Anne of Green Gables was my favorite movie as a kid. Anne was my hero. So, if Megan Follows is at DragonCon again this year, I want to meet her (I tried the past two years, but she always left the autograph hall just before I got there). I really must have an Anne of Green Gables outfit for this encounter, so I'm planning that.

* The other day I came up with an idea for an awesome cosplay (a female version of Doctor Strange) but I won't have time to do it before DragonCon this year, so it's top of the list for next year.

My sewing machine survived with some emergency cleaning (thank the Maker for service manuals and the darling man who bought them for me.)

Sorry about CostumeFail. I've had a few of those over the years.

Phoenix FanFest was this weekend...and I just couldn't bring myself to care. It would be over $100 to wander around Central Phoenix, stand in line for hours, overheat, watch panels that tell me nothing about anything I care about, and probably end up in an isolated quiet corner. Meh.

On the bright side, the dayjob has helped me pay down bills and reinvest in art supplies. I recently scored about $10K in fabric and glass seed beads for around $500, from two local Craigslist hauls. One woman in her 70s had macular degeneration & wanted to continue with quilting instead of beading. Another died last year at age 94, and her children were sorting through her 50-year stash. And we are talking staaaaash. It took me a month to sort and price out the combined hauls, for tax purposes. Oof.

So we made the decision to not attend DragonCon this year. We've been every year for a long time, but I was stressing so much over the costuming problems I'm having. I know you can go and NOT cosplay, but I don't really get to play dress-up elsewhere. Plus, all the heat, and walking, and everything, when I'm already not feeling my best. . . .

After discussing it with hubby, who was also feeling ambivalent about going this year, we decided to skip it and try again next year. Instead, he's taking me to a city about 5 hours away, where a sewing/costuming friend lives. I get to hang out with her for the weekend and I know we'll have a blast.